Completely new model literally blows
away Peerless Max kit; promise of new "Beep" kits to come
should be of excellent quality

Disadvantages:

May prove harder to find in some
cases than other brands

Recommendation:

To All US Vehicle Modelers

Reviewed by
Cookie Sewell

F
i r s t L o o k

It's nice to see older "Dog Pound" material kits replaced by newer,
state-of-the-art kits, especially when their prices aren't too far out of line
with the norm. Such is the case here with Skybow's gorgeous new kit of
"Patton's Command Car".

The kit actually provides more than enough parts, including what are
obviously parts for the rest of the Dodge WC-5X series vehicles. The kit
provides parts for either Patton's WC-57 model command car with winch or a WC-56
without winch from the 82nd Airborne Division or 83rd Infantry Division.
Patton's 3rd Army command flags and pennants, as well as very delicate styrene
panels for mounting them, are included as well.

This model has absolutely nothing in common with the 25-year old Peerless Max
(Italeri, Testors, Bilek) kit except for its subject. It comes with an amazingly
detailed Dodge T214 engine of 18 parts by itself. Even the windshield takes
seven parts to complete. While petite, none of the parts used in any assembly
are "fussy" parts like those used by Heller, e.g. why use two parts to
an assembly when seven are just fine? The kit also includes one of Skybow's
excellent M2HB .50 caliber machine guns and other small details.

The kit comes with a clearly illustrated nine-page direction book, but while
it is well illustrated it needs a better speller! Case in point is when the
directions call for winding the "spring" around the winch drum prior
to installation.

All in all this is a great little model, and while the price is higher than
would seem fair for the size of the model, its quality is up with the best, rivalling
that of most of the latest Tamiya kits such as the GMC and Jeep. The boxtop
would indicate that perhaps their next release will be the WC-51/52 Dodge 3/4
Weapons Carrier, which also will be very welcome by fans of American vehicles.